This film explores the different types of erosion and their dramatic effect on landscapes around the world.
Erosion is when land is worn away by another material. It's a natural process that's been going on for millions of years and it continues to shape our planet's landscape today.
Water is the Earth's main natural eroding force. The same seemingly harmless liquid we drink, has the power to sculpt the land around us.
There are four main types of water erosion:
Hydraulic action, when the power of the water causes the material to break apart;
Abrasion, when stones, pebbles and other sediment grind along the material in a sandpapering effect;
Attrition when rocks that are carried in the water, knock against each other and break apart to become smaller and more rounded;
And solution, when the water dissolves certain types of rocks, for example, limestone.
The speed with which erosion wears away the land depends on the force of the water and the durability of the material that's being worn away.
In rivers, strong, fast currents erode the riverbank and riverbed as the water moves along. River erosion like this often creates a V-shaped valley and features like meanders and oxbow lakes. Even a gentle, slow flow will have an impact over time.
Frozen water does the same thing, but at a much slower pace. This is called glacial erosion.
As glaciers move down mountains and hills, they wear away the land, a bit like sandpaper.
Glaciers leave behind distinctive U-shaped valleys.
The sea is another powerful eroding force, crashing into the coastline and wearing it away over time.
For example, the hydraulic action of the sea can create a crack in a cliff wall, which will eventually turn into a cave, this will eventually become an arch, then a stack and finally, a stump, which simply erodes away to nothing.
Coastal erosion creates stunning coastlines, but it can also lead to changes to the shoreline and to the loss of homes.
In 2013, three houses in the seaside village of Hemsby in Norfolk literally fell into the sea during storms that caused dramatic erosion to a cliff side, already severely eroded.
By 2018, five more houses were so close to the edge, that they had to be demolished before they fell into the sea below.
Many experts believe that climate change and melting ice is adding to a rise in sea levels as well as increased storms.
These two factors are accelerating the rate of coastal erosion in the United Kingdom and across the globe.
Video summary
This short film, first published in 2020, is for teachers and review is recommended before use in class.
Download/print a transcript of the video.
A short film for secondary schools explaining the various types of erosion and illustrating the dramatic effect the process has had on landscapes across the world.
It charts the impact erosion has on landscapes and how different types of erosion cause the land to wear away in different ways.
This short film helps meet the requirements of the National Curriculum in physical geography at KS3 with regard to:
- geological timescales and plate tectonics
- rocks, weathering and soils
- weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
- glaciation, hydrology and coasts.
Teacher Notes
This short film is an ideal tool to help students understand the varying processes of erosion and the impact that these have on landscapes.
As the film progresses, teachers can use it to annotate and describe in more detail the types of erosion and to discuss how these impact on human lives and activity.
Students can also discuss how they think humans can respond to erosion and to consider whether there are ways to reduce the impact of erosion on human life and activity.
Points for discussion:
What is erosion?
How has erosion changed the shape of the United Kingdom?
How can we reduce the impact of erosion?
Does erosion have more impact in some places than others, and why?
Suggested activities:
After viewing this short film, students could carry out studies of various locations that experience the four types of erosion shown.
They could also develop case studies on how landscapes have changed over time as a result of erosion.
Students could be asked to develop diagrams to explain how the processes of erosion happen in more detail and could then explore, through fieldwork, examples of these in context.
You could develop photo packs of landscapes in your locality, and ask students to explain in detail the processes that have led to the development of the features of these landscapes.
This short film is relevant for teaching geography at KS3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 3rd and 4th Level in Scotland.
Students and teachers over the age of 16 can create a free Financial Times account. For a Financial Times article about costal erosion, click here, and for a video about soil and erosion from 2024, click here.
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